Fare hike fury
Re: "Cabs can catch up", (Editorial, May 27).
This week, I arrived at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport and was shocked to find that the cost of a standard AOT taxi into town had just been increased 10.8% to 1,330 baht from an already high 1,200 baht. This is about twice the cost of a taxi or Grab car to the airport. The car had also been downgraded from a Toyota Camry HEV to a cheaper Deepal 07.
This is at a time when tourism is really struggling. How can this be justified or sensible?
Phil Cox
Sports blackout
Re:"TV match meltdown", (PostBag, Aug 20).
Over the past decade, I have been a subscriber to TRUE Visions. During that time, I have watched it go from a watchable collection of programming to a series of sports reruns, old movies and second-tier entertainment options. But this current collection has seen this monopolistic venture slide.
In the past weeks, we have seen the opening of the NCAA football season, the opening of the NFL football season, and the start of the WNBA and NASCAR playoffs.
The NFL season consists of 18 teams playing a total of 272 games. 136 NCAA FBS teams play a total of 816 games while the 13 WNBA teams play 44 games each.
None of these are available on TRUE Visions' Platinum service, not one. With the upcoming NBA season, who knows what will happen with that?
Now I am an American expat, so my sports viewing is skewed to US sports.
Oh, and neither the Emmys red carpet nor the awards ceremony itself was broadcast that I could find.
I saw an old New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox game and a few old grass-court tennis matches for my viewing pleasure.
Fred Prager
Right, not far-right
Re: "Clashes with police after far-right rally", (World, Sept 15).
It pains me to see that the Bangkok Post repeatedly republishes articles from Western media without verifying their content. In the article "Clashes with police after far-right rally", the protests in London are labelled as "far-right". These people are not far-right extremists but concerned citizens.
They are worried about mass immigration turning them into strangers in their own neighbourhoods, about young migrants harassing their wives and daughters, about some Muslim men abusing girls with police complicity, and about politicians who turn a blind eye to these problems.
They are also protesting against restrictions on free speech, a two-tier justice system, the perception that British citizens have fewer rights than migrants, and the housing of migrants in expensive hotels while British people go cold and hungry because the cost of living has soared. They face a government that refuses to listen, downplays their concerns, and fails to provide solutions.
Across the Western world, citizens who protest government policies are routinely branded as far-right or racist. This is the tactic of left-wing elites in the West, portraying dissatisfied citizens as inferior or malicious people whose voices can be ignored.
But if you look more closely at their grievances, you find that it is concern for their country and their families that drives them into the streets -- not far-right ideology or racism.
Anna Aarts
